The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof, which can be used appropriately as a semiconductor device including semiconductor elements formed in a semiconductor substrate and a manufacturing method thereof.
There is a semiconductor chip as a semiconductor device which has semiconductor elements formed in the upper surface of a semiconductor substrate and a plurality of wiring layers formed over the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. There is also a semiconductor chip as a semiconductor device in which the uppermost one of a plurality of wiring layers includes a pad for electrically coupling the semiconductor chip to the outside of the semiconductor chip. In recent years, to reduce the area occupied by a semiconductor chip, any of a plurality of semiconductor elements or any of the plurality of wires included in each of wiring layers is placed immediately under a pad.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-170763 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technique related to semiconductor device including a plurality of wiring layers formed over a first main surface of a semiconductor substrate and coupling portions which electrically couple the plurality of wiring layers to each other.